Tag: Parkville

Amelia Douglas Recipient of the 2009 Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in the PhD, University of Melbourne Pierre Huyghe and the Association of Freed Time What is at stake in the making and recording of history, and what does it mean for a contemporary artist to work as an historiographer? The contemporary French artist Pierre Huyghe is well-known for his multi-faceted works that operate in the gaps between history and story. In this lecture, Huyghe’s practice is shown to facilitate a new model of contemporary history. History as a discursive concept is pliable; its meaning shifts depending on contexts. In presenting an historiographic reading of Huyghe’s practice, this lecture reflects upon how the coalescence of story and history may be a key factor in pulling together the diverse strands of Australian and international art histories. Pierre Huyghe is one of the most significant artists of the 21st century. His work –…

Sophie Matthiesson Curator, International Art, National Gallery of Victoria Captive Markets: Artists in Prison in the French Revolution Hundreds of artists found themselves in prison during the French Revolution. While confined surprising numbers resumed painting, sculpting, drawing and even engraving. Few prisons were without some level or artistic production and exchange. Based on unpublished research of French prison archives and prison-made works of art, this lecture addresses some basic questions. Who were the artists, and why were they imprisoned? What did they make and for whom? Using select case studies, this talk will propose some basic categories and functions of the prison-made object and present a model for its interpretation. It will also consider some of the wider implications of this curious and little-known area of cultural production for our understanding of the political prison in France in the period…

The Joseph Burke Lecture 2009 Jason Smith Director, Heide Museum of Modern Art Dark Theatres and Erotic Intensities: some thoughts on the works of Bacon, Henson, Booth and Boynes This lecture will be a further elaboration of my long standing interest in the humanist foundation of the works of many artists with whose practices I have interacted closely during my career. In this lecture I focus on the works of Francis Bacon, Bill Henson, Peter Booth and Robert Boynes as artists who were and are sensitive barometers of their times. Their works alert us to unpredictable and sometimes dire evolutions in culture by offering us images and ideas that are alternative to the mainstream. In his 1878 treatise Human, All Too Human, Friedrich Nietzsche suggested that if ‘someone doesn’t want to see something, they won’t.’ The works of Bacon, Henson,…